came in from a rainy thursday on the avenue

[hisdiscretion]

Who: hisdiscretion, all_sweetheart & alwaysfindsyou
When: Backdated to Thursday 3/10/11, around 1PM
Where: A burger joint!
Summary: Franz wants to make friends. He is hoping he is not totally awkward in his not-21st-Century upbringing.
Warnings: Intense frowning at those little paper cups you put condiments in! Other than that, probably nothing.

Comments

[hisdiscretion]

"Socially, it seems my world more resembles the one of Earth's 19th Century compared to the 21st. I was very surprised about some of the trends here... not just blue jeans, but the lack of aristocracy. Anyone can marry anyone they like here, regardless of gender or social status. It's refreshing, but to someone like me, whose existence was defined by my duties to my barony, well, it's been interesting."

Franz took a small sip of the milkshake. The texture was really something else, and it was far sweeter than he really preferred things, though that was something he often ran into with Canadian and American food. The French fries were not an entirely foreign idea to him, naturally, and burgers were not so different than working-class street foods his friend Max had introduced to him. There was a lot to like about it, though he couldn't say it was his favorite thing in the world. To someone who sampled fine Neptunian foods and Janinan specialties, the fast food was not nearly as unusual as he might've worried.

"--This is pretty good! I can see why it's popular. Next time, I'll have to take you to this cafe that has these great sandwiches, a very similar combination of flavors."

Franz ate a little more. He had briefly considered getting some plastic utensils with which to consume these items, for the sake of his own fastidious manners, but noticing his new friends did not, he was attempting to eat with hands. He still ate with polite 'princess' bites.

"As for my work, well, I'm the personal assistant of Monsieur Raul Creed, the head of security at Lion's Gate Club. He's also at the head of developing the Newcomer Political Party. Ah... being a personal assistant, I take his calls and arrange his appointments, and basically just make sure he can do his job most efficiently and easily. On any given day I'll run his suits to the cleaners, answer his phone calls, return his phone calls, take dictation, personally deliver important documents, get him lunch, draft documents for the NPP, check on the status of his various projects. Just pretty much anything he needs, I do it for him." Franz spoke of it all with a sort of breathless pride, he really did like the feeling of orderliness that his job brought him.

"There's one other thing that I do for him." Franz glanced around, and leaned in a little to impart this secret. "I'm sure you've noticed I glow. I didn't do that before I came here - it seems to be a mutation due to the Core. But in addition from that, I'm able to sense when people are lying to me. So Monsieur Creed finds me a very useful person for gathering information."

[all_sweetheart]

"So you're a baron in your world?" His eyebrows raise in surprise. "Impressive." He grins and glances towards Billy. "And we thought our family situations were interesting." He takes a couple of huge bites out of his burger before noticing the neat way Franz was eating. His cheeks flush slightly in embarrassment as he makes himself slow down.

"That's...a big list of things. You must keep pretty busy." He sips some of his milkshake. "I think you mentioned that before. That people get powers when they come here. So how does yours work exactly? Do you light up when someone is lying or something?"

[alwaysfindsyou]

The more Billy listened to Franz talk about the future he came from, the more Billy hoped that it wasn't going to happen to them. Not that he would be around to see it, but still, the thought of certain things going backwards instead of continuing to press forward until everyone was treated equally wasn't very comforting. But they weren't here to talk about that so Billy kept it to himself.

When Teddy commented on Franz being a baron, Billy lightly elbowed Teddy in the side and returned the grin, as if to say 'Royalty? Kind of like you'. "Yours more so than mine."

He raised an eyebrow at the tiny little bits Franz was taking. "You don't have to eat it like that," he encouraged. "Just, you know, take a really big bite. Like this." Billy took a chomp out of his own burger. He did, however, finish eating before he started talking again. "See?"

When the other listed off all the things that he did, Billy's eyes widened a little. "And you do that all by yourself? You don't have any help at all? How much free time do you have?"

He leaned forward when Franz did, grinning a little when he informed them of his power. "So you're like a walking lie detector? That's pretty cool." Someone had mentioned that some people gained powers being here when he'd first arrived so he didn't find it too surprising that Franz didn't have them before.

[hisdiscretion]

Franz shook his head, looking a little shy. He simply couldn't eat with big bites like that or overdo it, he'd only hear his mother in his head threatening to make him practice cutting meat with a book on his head, or any other number of embarrassing things.

"It's not so impressive. My father was a baron, and when he died, I became a baron."

Franz took a few more bites, trying with more gusto, but it still didn't seem quite right. He took a few sips of the overwhelmingly sweet milk shake.

"I do all of it by myself. I have plenty of free time - enough to study, and walk my dog, and... ah, attend my social life. Sleeping. I sleep a lot. Y'see, the glowing and sensing the truth? They don't seem to be directly linked. The glow reflects my emotions, but the truth stuff? It causes me pain. Whenever someone tells a lie, I feel pain. If it's small, it feels like a little pinch. If it's big, it hurts a lot more. This accumulates until I get huge migraines."

[all_sweetheart]

Teddy watches Franz's attempt to eat with more enthusiasm and hides an amused smile by taking a bite out of his own burger. He elbows Billy lightly back. "At least mine didn't come with any surprise siblings?" He laughs.

"I can appreciate sleeping a lot. I'd probably sleep entire days away if I could. Plus, I can see how that can tire you down, especially if you have run ins with a lot of liars...Which I'm hoping you don't because, first off, ouch and second, liars don't usually make up the best of company."